The Queen’s Birthday Holiday long weekend is traditionally one of the most loaded weekend’s gig wise around the country, and Brisbane was no exception. With a plethora of big events containing a wide number of venues and genres, punters really were spoilt for choice, particularly on Friday night. But those in the know, were all at one place, Uber Nightclub in the West End to see Pavel Nedved look-a-like James Zabiela do his thing on the decks for 3 solid hours.

James Zabiela is renowned for his superior technical DJ ability through his progressive house sets with electro and tech influences. Widely revered for his Renaissance compilations ‘Utilities’ & ‘Alive’, he has been making serious waves worldwide for the past few years. A ladies favourite for his boyish good looks, I amongst others was extremely keen to see ‘JZ’ play in Brisbane for the first time ever. JZ fans in Brisbane have endured a wretched time in the past as time and time again he has bypassed Brisbane to play the more established cities of Melbourne & Sydney. Luckily for punters in Brisbane, progressive house is in somewhat of a peak period in our fair town, and with the knowledge that those in the know wouldn’t pass up an opportunity to see JZ play, Uber took it upon them-selves to bring him to town.

Now being a big listener of live sets, I was keen pre-event to get my knowledge up on what was hot in Zab’s box. I acquired a few recent live sets from JZ and whilst listening to them instantly become a little bit confused. While the first set was a thumping dance floor destroyer full of massive electro, progressive and tech-house tunes, the next set I listened to was slow, mellow, chugging and outright boring; it nearly put me asleep! Confused as to what to expect I gave up on the pre-listening and thought I’d go into the gig with a reasonably open mind.

Arriving at Uber a little after 10pm, I was instantly taken aback by the beauty of this new nightclub. Being my first time to Uber, I was uber impressed (pardon the pun) by the lush décor and comfortable surroundings. Confused at first, I thought it to be quite small, very small in fact; luckily I was wrong. I was only in the cocktail lounge and made my way indeed through the doors to the main room. Once inside, to my left was the beautifully decorated bar, nice size and well staffed. Straight ahead was the DJ booth, raised significantly off the dance floor, I saw local favourite Aniki busily trying to work the dance floor up. Dropping a few notable ‘floor-fillers’, Aniki managed to turn the smallish crowd into a more sizeable dance floor as he wrapped up his two hour set.

11 o’clock and it was time for ex-Brisbane live act & fan favourites, Kid Kay Ferris. Being a massive KKF fan, I was nearly more excited about seeing them than I was to seeing JZ!! And they didn’t disappoint! As Danny & Joel made their way to stage there was notable a new third member of the group. She was a gorgeous looking & sounding, leading female singer. While the majority of the girls would swoon over JZ later in the night, most of the guys did the same over KKF’s newest member, this reviewer included. Early in their set they did a cover of CRW – ‘I Feel Love’ which was definitely one of the highlights of the evening for me. The best part of the next hour was spend merrily dancing as the KKF boys produced yet another stellar Brisbane performance, much to the delight of all present.

A tick after midnight and it was time for the main man to enter the building. As JZ made his way through the doors and across the dance floor nearly all sets of eyes followed his every move, his charming good looks certainly had a few girls next to me more than enjoying the view.

Starting off on a 3 hour journey of lush progressive sounds with an electro flavour, JZ had the crowd in the palm of his hand. Smiling away behind the decks I can’t recall a DJ ever looking so god damn happy to be playing. He looked like he was having the time of his life, which certainly added to the already great atmosphere throughout the room. There was one minor glitch when the noise had to be turned down in the club. Various rumours circulated as to why it had to be turned down but there is strong talk that the club got fined and had to turn the noise down due to local noise restrictions. Hopefully for Brisbane punters & Uber Nightclub this will not be a recurring problem.

By the time local favourites Scott Walker & Magoo started for the last hour of the evening I was well and truly gone. Circumstances outside of my control saw that I left the gig earlier than expected. By all reports JZ finished with a flurry of big electro stormers, much to the delight of all present. By the same reports Scott Walker & Magoo wrapped things up in style, as if you’d expect anything less.
Overall I thought the gig was a massive success. For one reason or another I had the feeling that the gig might turn out to be a fizzer and arrive to not see that many people there. My worries were quickly dismissed by time Kid Kay Ferris had started to turn things up. It was fantastic to see KKF play in their hometown again, it really had been too long between drinks. The locals Aniki and then Scott Walker & Magoo were solid as always – Brisbane really is blessed with some of the finest resident DJs in Australia. And what to make of James Zabiela, for what I saw and heard I loved every second of it. I thought that he could have possibly gone up a notch here and there, but overall thoroughly enjoyed his set. Grooving came so easy, especially as he presented a beaming smiling face for the duration of his set. One thing’s for sure, the venue is absolutely top shelf. Beautiful interior, nice spacious dance floor with non-smoker friendly high ceilings, I’ll definitely be back very, very soon. Kudos to the powers-that-be at Uber for bring Zabiela to town, nobody else had the balls to put him on, and they did, and did it well. Will definitely be frequenting Uber in the not to distant future.